Elephanta Caves Visit

Last week me and my friends visited and wondered about Elephanta Caves, situated in the Island Hills, Raigad District, 11km from Mumbai, Maharashtra. Started from Gate Way of India, Mumbai by Motor Boat (`130) around 11:00AM and reached Caves at 12:10PM

Taj Hotel & Gate Way of India View from Motor Boat

Motor Boat Service to Elephanta Caves from India Gate, Mumbai

Me in the motor boat sailing through Arabian Sea

Boat House at Elephanta Caves

Toy Train from Boat House to Foot Hills

After reaching the boat house, traveled in Toy Train to reach the foot hills of Caves. There are lot of shops selling ornaments, gem stones, wall mounts, photographs etc along the 1000 steep steps towards the cave. The entrance of the caves welcomes us as World Heritage Site.

Elephanta Caves was designated as World Heritage Site in the year 1987

Main Entrance view of Main Cave/Cave1/Shiva Cave (89sq.ft)

There are seven cave excavations in the Elephanta group and these are datable from circa 6th – 7th centuries A.D. 

The island is named after a colossal elephant found in the island, which is popularly known as ‘Gharapuri’. At present, the statue of elephant is housed at Jijamata Garden in Mumbai. In ancient period, the place is variously identified as Puri which is mentioned in the Aihole inscription of Pulakesin II. It seems, different dynasties held their sway over this island, namely, the Konkan-Mauryas, Trikutakas, Chalukyas of Badami, Silaharas, Rashtrakutas, Kalyani Chalukyas, Yadavas of Deogiri, Muslim rulers of Ahmedabad and then by the Portuguese. The Marathas also had this island under their control and from them it passed into the control of the British.

The main cave has various rock cut sculptures denoting the Shaiva Hindu sect, dedicated to Lord Shiva. The photographs of various sculptures (partly broken) are posted sequentially based on the layout given below.

Main Cave Layout and details of sculptures are mentioned below

Main Hall 1. Ravana lifting Kailash, 2. Shiva-Parvati on Kailash, 3. Ardhanarishvara,  4. Trimurti, 5. Gangadhara, 6. Wedding of Shiva, 7. Shiva slaying Andhaka,  8. Nataraja, 9. Yogishvara, 16. Linga East Wing Shrine 10. Kartikeya, 11. Matrikas, 12. Ganesha, 13. Dvarapala West Wing Shrine 14. Yogishvara, 15. Nataraja

Map showing various caves and cannon sites in Elephanta Caves Hills

Site Board describing the history of Elephanta Caves

 Ravana lifting Kailash

 Lord Shiva-Parvati in Kailash

 Ardhanarishwara (Male-Shiva; Female-Parvati)

Trimurti (Left Face: Rudhra-Shiva-Aghora ; Middle Face: Vishnu ; Right Face: Brahma ) 

 Me in front of with Trimurti 

Gangadhara Shiva

Divine marriage of Shiva-Parvati with blessings of Brahma, Vishnu, Indra and others

Shiva slaying Andhaka

 Shiva as Nataraja (Dancer)

Shiva as Yogeshwara doing penance

Shiva Linga Shrine

Then visited the other caves around main cave. Towards west of main cave around 1km along the steep slope went to cannon site. Overall it was a wonderful experience.

To know more about Elephanta Caves do visit:

Archaeological Survey of India: http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_whs_elephanta.asp

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephanta_Caves

Prabhu Selvaraj (02 October 2010)